


Dark Wounds in Dark Times

by Barelywriting



Category: Pretty Little Liars
Genre: Drug Abuse, F/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rape, Rape Aftermath
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-07
Updated: 2014-06-02
Packaged: 2018-01-14 21:51:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1280086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Barelywriting/pseuds/Barelywriting





	1. Losing My A-Game

_BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BE--- click._

Her eyes were still closed tight when her slender arm slowly slung over her head and her sweaty palm hit the SNOOZE button. Curious to what time it was, she opened her eyes slightly, just enough to read the time. It was five o'clock in the early morning. She closed her eyes and thought, _today was a Thursday_. Class doesn't start until nine o' clock, but Emily Fields, MVP swimmer of the Rosewood swimming team wakes up hours early for her daily intense morning runs. Even on the weekends, she goes on a run through the woods behind her house. It was a way for her to clear her mind; however, today was different. She didn’t feel like running, not even a walk or to get out of bed. How could she? She couldn’t even move. Her head was already throbbing and parts of her body ached, and on top of that, she was drained of all fortitude and dignity as she barely slept through the hours she had left last night. Her eyes closed and remained shut tight, but her mind was racing. Racing from the tiny bursts of images in her head from the incident that occurred last night, her body shook as she remembers his cold finger tips gliding its way up the bed sheets, creeping up to her thighs and harshly groping and marking her olive skin. She can still smell his breath, clouds of air breathing heavily on her face and his sticky wet tongue slithering forcefully inside her mouth.

Tears fell down at the tiny corners of her eyes, and she let out short, quiet whimpers. Finally, she pulled the edges of her covers and cocooned herself for some empty sense of safety.

***

Hanna Marin, one of the A-list girls of Rosewood High walks toward the table that she and her best friends would usual sit and have lunch. From afar she sees the girls, Aria Montgomery and Spencer Hastings already eating their lunch. When she arrived, she quickly sat down, accidentally slamming the bottom of her food tray on the cafeteria table.

_THUMP!_

"Uh, something the matter Han?" Aria said in a surprised tone.

"Ms. Montgomery doesn’t want to give me an extension on that English paper", Hanna replied matter-of-factly. Hanna with her blonde hair styled in wavy lengths was intentionally looking at Aria, eyeing her with a sarcastic but harmless glare.

"Don't give me that look! Even I don't get extensions - even if SHE IS my Mom." Aria beamed in a defensive tone.

Spencer let out a quiet laugh, enjoying the stare down between Hanna and Aria, knowing full well that this quarrel will end before everyone knows it.

"Where's Emily?" Spencer asked, realizing that Emily didn't come with Hanna from their English class together.

"Beats me." Hanna replied, while she shrugged her shoulders upwards. "She wasn't in class today."

"Yeah, I didn't see her in Algebra either, and we just had a huge test. I texted her right before the class started, but I didn’t get any text back from her." Aria pointed out with a slight worry.

"She's probably sick or something," Spencer said as she played with her peas and carrots with a fork on her plate. "Let's check up on her after school."

The girls quickly changed the topic and shrugged it off, not knowing then what really happened and what they were going to witness after. If only they knew, what was going on with Emily right then.

***

Emily’s house seemed stagnant and deserted from the outside. With Emily’s mom out of town for a few days to visit Emily’s dad in Texas, it was the perfect privacy for Emily’s boyfriend, Ben to have some quality time even when it was just a study date. Ben, a tall, lean and muscular guy also swam for the Rosewood Sharks. Clean cut and polite, he was every parent’s dream to be the perfect boyfriend for their daughter. But lately, Ben was acting a little strange for Emily; Ben seemed to be more aggressive and demanding of Emily, especially with having sex, something that Emily was still uncomfortable with. Some days he would push her to the limits, even saying rude and brass things, then apologizing after. Emily, had the tendency to be passive about certain things, and these were the things that she just shrugged off, but this night was something different. Emily and Ben were in her room, Emily sitting next to the window seat, and Ben laying down on her bed with a book in front of him. There was an upcoming Algebra test in the next few days and she was intent on passing it with flying colors. Ben on the other hand kept glancing to Emily’s direction having a slight smirk outline his face. Slowly he sat up and walked towards her, his head leaning in slowly next to the side of her cheek, making her jump in surprise as she felt his tongue lick her neck.

**Emily**

On the second attempt, I quickly pulled away and dodged his second attempt, "Ben! We have to study! The test is tomorrow!" I said in a stern and frustrated voice. He would always do something like this when we're in closed quarters. It's not because I didn't like it, but usually when things begin to get heated, he becomes physically aggressive. He never hit me, he was just…rough. It scares me that he shows how much physically stronger he is than to me, usually pushing me down with his heavy torso while he grips my wrists over my head with his hands, then eventually letting me go.

But he kept going, although he was gentle this time, caressing the skin on my neck with his tongue. My body shook as I felt a slight tingle in my spine, and I slowly turned myself towards him and touched his lips. It was soft and wet and I lost myself in that moment.

I didn't even realize that I was standing up, locking my body with his. My palms softly brushed through the back of his head and his arms embraced my waist. Suddenly, he began touching me in places where I felt uncomfortable; my eyes flew wide open and pushed him away from me. "Um okay, uh, we need to study for the tests…remember?" I turn around, walking towards my study space next to the window.

"Ugh, you’re such a tease, Em." Ben said in an angry and frustrated voice.

"Excuse me?!!" I said befuddled; uncertain if I heard him right.

"I said, YOU'RE SUCH A TEASE!!! What?! I'll never be good enough for you?! How long do you have to keep me waiting?!" Ben began inching his way towards me, taking a couple of steps where his hands could reach me then tightly gripping onto my shoulders. I could feel his nails clawing through my skin.

"Ben!!! Let go of me!! You're hurting me…" I cry out a whimper and I could feel my heart racing. In a quick second, I felt gravity pushing me towards the wall, my back slamming so hard behind me that I recoiled toward the floor. As I feel my body fall limp, my head catches the edge of the table, and in an instant everything was dark.

I woke up on top of my bed, my wrists bound by the opposite polls of my bedpost. My ankles felt the same rough ligature wrapped around my skin, pulling my legs on opposite sides. I lift my head up, trying to get a look onto my body’s stinging sensations, but I only see my covers on top of me. Then I gasped. I realized I was naked in my room, and could feel the texture of the covers onto my cold and sensitive skin. In the dark, I can see Ben's masculine figure standing up next to me with eyes wide, filled with hunger. I began to panic, as my vision became clearer and focused on the dark silhouette in front of me.

 


	2. Unravel Me

**Emily**

 

"Ben!!! What are you doing? Let me go!" He didn't respond and his eyes darted where my stomach was under the covers. Slowly, he swung his left leg over my bottom half and pushed himself up with his right leg to the bed. He was sitting just right over my thighs, his knees folded onto the side of my legs. I felt vulnerable and scared. Gently, he took the edges of the thin covers and began pulling it slowly just barely exposing me. My eyes grew in horror as I started to realize what he was intending to do. Before I could scream, he covered my mouth with the palm of his hand. Slowly, he leaned in next to my head and whispered in my ear, "You can't say no to me anymore, Em."

 

Tears began to crawl on my face and I began to jerk myself off of him. I was fighting so hard and moving so violently that my knee managed to hit him in between his legs. I saw the agony in his face, and he fell off my ankles and landed on the side of the bed.

 

"FUCKING BITCH!" I heard it in a low tone through his teeth. Before I knew it, his dark figure rose on top of me and backhanded my right cheek.

 

"How do you like being kicked in the crotch, BITCH?!" At the same moment those words left his mouth, he kneed me, jabbing extreme pressure and pain in between me.

 

I never saw anybody this violent, maybe only in television. I didn't believe that things like this happen in real life, and everything going on at that very moment seemed so surreal.

 

When he decided that he was done with me, I began to make sense of what time it was. But all I could feel, see, smell, taste and hear was his sweat and heavy body over me. His head was lying on top of my breasts and I could feel his heart beat slowing down on my abdomen. It was a cold night, but I felt flushed, tired and hot. I felt the agonizing pain and wetness in between my thighs. I felt my skin was torn wide open in between me and my body ached all over. I could feel stingy bite marks on my breasts and nipples and I could taste the blood in my mouth and at the corner of my cheek as it crept down my lip. My left eye was swollen and I could barely make out his figure as he slowly untied me.

 

I felt so disgusted, empty, cold and torn. I felt that I had died but I was being forced to live this life.

 

I didn't move, not even an inch. He rolled me onto my side and I pulled my arms and knees inwards and curled up to a fetal position. I wanted to envelope myself from everything. I wanted to disappear. He placed his chin onto the bed as he kneeled in front of my face.

 

“I swear, you better not tell anybody about this, or else-" he hissed.

 

I felt like I was about to pass out from the intense pain that I felt all over my body, and right when my vision was clouding, I felt him yank my hair to lift my head. "Hey! Can you hear me----?!"

 

Then everything was dark.

 

It was 1:13 in the afternoon already when I finally came to. The sun was shamefully blaring through my curtains and little light filled the room. Slowly, with my left arm, I pushed myself upwards but my arm gave way of my weight. I felt an intense pain on my left arm, and I could see it swollen. Then I began to feel the rest of the pain that is itching its way to display their marks on me.

 

***

 

**Spencer**

 

Aria drove us to Emily's house and parked at the empty driveway. I saw Emily's car parked on the sidewalk since her mother usually takes the driveway. I guess Mrs. Fields is still not home from visiting Emily's Dad in Texas yet. _I wonder if Emily is feeling okay..._

 

"Hmmm, did Em tell us what time her Mom was coming home today?" Hanna casually asked.

 

"I think it should be in a few hours. Not entirely sure." Aria responded.

 

We all got out of the car and we walked ourselves towards the front door. Hanna was the first one to reach the doorsteps and without hesitation she rang the doorbell. We waited for a few seconds until Hanna rang the doorbell again. Aria began to go around the house to check if anybody was home through the windows.

 

"Nothing, she's probably sleeping soundly in her room." Aria stated.

 

Without speaking, she walked past behind me where a potted plant stood tall. Clearing the thin surface of the dirt inside the pot, unraveled a pair of house keys that the Fields had stashed away.

 

"Here, Em showed me where her spare keys were when we sneaked back to her house late last Halloween." Hanna said non-challantly.

 

"Okay, good. Let's use it; I'm kind of getting a weird feeling from all this. She's still not picking up her phone." I heard my voice slightly crack. I didn't know why exactly, but I can feel my heart beat faster and faster, as if something was wrong.

 

***

 

**Aria**

 

Hanna unlocked the key latch and twisted the doorknob slowly. The door pushed wide open and Hanna yelled out her name.

 

"Emily? It's us, Aria, Spence and Hanna…. _silence_ ….Emily? _More silence._

 

We all looked at each other and all thought of the same thing. We could feel it in our bones, and it was screaming at us at our faces. _Something is wrong._ Hanna was the first one to go, then Spencer, then me. We skipped through the staircases in two's and dashed towards Emily's door. By the time I got to the top of the stairs, I see Hanna's back blocking Emily's doorway entrance, just showing Emily’s head at the edge of her bed through the cracks. Hanna was frozen still and I heard her begin to whimper. Panic struck me; I felt a shock and a tremendous and continuous jab pounding on my chest. I ran towards the door as if it was the only thing that I can do; and there I froze. Like Hanna. Both feeling shock, pain, disbelief, agony, and despair. And yet I felt the void of nothingness.

 

***

 

**Emily**

 

_I am somewhere shrouded in gray emptiness. My insides were crumbling and I feel the gravity of the pain forcing my chest to pump- pushing and pulling my muscles out of my heart. Darkness begins to alter the musty surroundings, beginning to where I lay, until it swallows me whole. And in the black inch of darkness, I heard a sweet voice...calling my name._

 

"Emily, Em! Em, wake up! There's a pulse but…but, she's barely breathing." I vaguely hear Spencer's muffled voice, and myself coming to. I felt a light tap on my right cheek, holding it upwards and a slight nudge on my left shoulder.

 

Slowly, I begin to open my eyes, but my left eye only opened halfway. I can feel the swollen socket weighing over my eyes. Cringing through the sudden icy cold atmosphere of where I lay, my eyes darted straight up and saw my blue painted ceiling. I was in my room; on my bed. Suddenly, from my blurred vision, Spencer and Aria appeared in my view.

***

 

**Hanna**

 

I paced back and forth in the room, grinding my teeth and biting my lip. I didn't know what to do.

 

"I'm calling the police!" I suddenly hear myself yell out. Before I could grab my phone, I hear a moan in her voice, desperately trying to talk.

 

"No…. Please...don't." Emily begged. She was sitting up now with her back leaning on the head board. She looked drained, bloody and swollen and I couldn’t even imagine where she gets the energy to speak. Just looking at her makes my knees shake, barely holding myself together in front of her. Her left eye was swollen and she can barely open the other. She was wearing her pajama bottoms and I could see that it was torn and wasn't pulled all the way up to her waist. The blankets covered around her torso, right above her breast. It covered everything but her arms as her hair dropped wrangled across her face. She was black and blue from what was vulnerable to all of us and that’s when I felt my eyes well up as I strain myself with anticipation from what was lying underneath.

 

**Spencer**

 

"What do you mean don't call the police?!" Hanna screamed.

“Hanna!” I said in a stern voice as I glared at her for yelling at Emily's fragile state.

 

My attention returned back to Emily and I clasped both hands slowly onto her face, moving it towards my eyes making contact. "Sweetie, it's going to be okay. Okay? Can you tell me what happened?" I tried my best to say those words in the calmest way I can possible.

 

 _Hold yourself together Spence. Hold yourself together._ I kept telling myself.

 

The sight and feeling of her skin sent goose bumps and repulsive images in my mind to whom and what could have done this. Just touching her face leaves blood stains onto my fingertips.

It was clear however to what else had happened to Emily at a state like this. She was raped.

 

“Han, go ahead. Call the police; we need to get her to a hospital as soon as possible.” Keeping a calm decorum, I didn’t give myself even a slight chance of failure of leaving Emily’s eyes. Even in her broken stature, she kept her flinching eyes looking up at me.

 

"I……I-" Emily murmured while her eyes were trying to open themselves. "I-I'm fine… r-really, I am." Emily pushes herself up from her sitting position, but as soon as her torso was using its own weight, I saw the horrid look in her face as she blared out a cry of pain. Aria and I caught her before she throbbed anymore forward. We guided her back to lay on the head rest while Hanna ran towards the other side of the bed.

 

“The police are on their way” Hanna said abruptly. However, panic was still seeping down my body, as my mind raced to what else I can I do to ease her pain. Suddenly, it just became clear. There was so much blood. So much that something is very, very wrong.

 

"Em, I need to see where the blood is coming from okay? I'm going to take off the cover around you." Emily's half-opened eyes blared at mines and I can hear her voice in my mind screaming, no.

 

I turn my eyes to Hanna and nodded as she stood up and pulled the covers behind Emily. I felt my heart stop and drop.

 

“We need a towel or something.” I grabbed one of her pillows and slipped the pillow case from it. I placed it right under Emily’s rib, putting pressure on the blood oozing out of her skin.

 

"It’s not working. I’m grabbing a towel.” Aria screamed in panic as she ran out of the room.

 

What seemed like a million hours only went on for only a few minutes. I can hear the ambulance sirens across town, wailing through the streets to Emily’s window. _Thank goodness, they’re almost here._ Emily sat in silence but with her face and how she clasped onto her wound told us something else. Her sides were in blotches of black and blue while the dark smeared blood stains grew dry from the lashes of her ripped skin. She was stabbed right under the side of her ribs and I could the clean line of dripping blood. Her breasts had bruises and bite marks, some bleeding, some encrusted with dried blood. It seemed that the agony she had gone through lasted at an immensely long time.

Hanna, quickly taking off her jacket placed it over Emily’s. Hanna’s hands were shaking as she watched a pool of blood was forming on the side of Emily’s body and her pajama bottoms were becoming drenched. I looked at Emily's pale and bruised face as she was falling out of consciousness.

 

"Hold on Em! You're going to be okay! You're going to be okay!!"

 

As I gave more pressure onto her wound, everything began to happen in slow motion. I could hear the sirens outside Emily's house. I couldn't even hear my voice anymore as I kept telling Emily that everything will be okay. Hanna grabbed Emily's face with both of her hands and Hanna's lips began to move. She was telling her something, and she had her face set stern and serious. Then the paramedics came with Aria pulling me out of the way.


	3. Hysteria

**Aria**

 

We all sat in the lobby in a blank daze. We were in complete shock and disbelief but at the same time an incomprehensible sense of fear, worry, agony and emotional pain. Hanna had stopped crying and she was leaning on my shoulder with her eyes closed. My arm was wrapped around her as we were both trying to comfort each other. Spencer walked through the doors with four cups of coffee at hand all in a tray. It was almost 8 o’ clock in the evening and Mrs. Fields made it just less than an hour ago- almost over four hours after Emily was admitted to the hospital. They wouldn't tell us what was going on, only that she is in surgery and they needed a family member to explain the ongoing diagnosis.

 

Spencer all gave us our cup of coffee and one was left in the middle of the lobby table for Mrs. Fields. All of us looked down or up, around us but never towards each other. We didn't know how to react to a situation like this. I mean, we just saw our best friend, Emily laying in her room where she was beaten, stabbed, and raped. We all saw her vulnerable and torn. She was broken and we honestly thought we were going to lose her earlier.

 

The steel lobby doors flung wide open and all of our heads turned towards that direction. Our anticipation was bittersweet; Mrs. Fields had come back from speaking to the doctors, but burdened with the truth of what was happening. _Is Emily going to be okay? Will she ever recover? What happened… who could have done such a thing…..?_

 

Spencer handed Mrs. Fields her cup of coffee. Mrs. Fields twisted the foam cup around her fingers before taking a sip.

 

"You girls better sit down." Mrs. Fields sounded surprisingly calm or at least her voice was. She is usually tense with an overprotective connotation to what Emily had to do for anything and everything. It must be killing her that she wasn’t around when Emily needed her the most. I stared at her while rubbing Hanna’s shoulder and an awkward silence circulated the room.

 

"Mrs. Fields---?" Hanna interrupted.

 

"Oh, yes sorry girls. Emily… well, the doctors said that Emily just finished surgery. She, is going to be okay.” I can hear her voice cracking. “She lost a lot of blood, and she is on fluids right now. There were severe bruising. Broken bones, a strained wrist, six cracked ribs and a dislocated jaw.” My eyes gaped open; _I didn’t know it was that bad._ “Her vision in her left eye will heal after the bruising dissipates… But she was stabbed in her chest that slightly punctured her lung in a few centimeters,”

“almost like drowning in her own blood" I quietly blurted out. Mrs. Fields finally paused for a second, gathering her composure "But she's strong, she pulled through the surgery and is in ECG now. I'm sure of it…"

  

"Also, I know you girls probably know this already but she was---"

 

"She was raped." Spencer decided to just blurt it out. It was a four letter word that I could not make myself to say out loud after today. It was painful, and all I could think of was Emily and what she had gone through. She didn't deserve this…

 

Each of our parents eventually came, stayed for a while until Mr. Fields arrived. He was tall, taller than Emily or her mother, and he was strong, brave and modest. The Fields only have Emily as their only child, and they could not cherish anyone else. Soon, we all left, telling each other to try to get some rest, and just to come back to the hospital the next day.

 

***

**Hanna**

 

It has been over a week now and Emily is slowing getting progress. A week ago she was on life support, hooked in a variety of tubes and machines, fighting for her life, fighting so hard to just wake up and be with us again. The doctors said it was just any day now, just any day. I was seating on the hospital chair, leaning my head on Emily's arm. My fingers twirled around hers so I can immediately feel any sign of movement. Spencer was across the bed, telling Emily the events of our days, usually it was the same thing but it was comforting knowing that she can hear us, or at least that’s what the doctors believe. Aria was next to me, rubbing my back while she and Spencer told Emily about our day…. And that's when I felt it…

 

**Emily**

_It was quiet, cool and soothing. I can hear someone breathing next to me. Alive and well. All of a sudden, voices and noises began to spur. Where am I? I tried to speak, but no sound came out. And in a moment, the whiteness changed its contrast; giving color to my surroundings. Then it was blank white again, then dark. Then cool, but not the same quiet, soothing feeling ever again._

My eyelids were like concrete; I could barely open them, and even then- I couldn’t see very well. The entirety of the room was still bright white and I can smell the sharp and strong scent of bleach.

“Hey Em.” My eyes slowly traveled towards the familiar voice. It was Hanna, and next to her was Aria. _Where am I?_ I tried to say out loud. However, no sound came out, only a thin cloud of breath fogged the plastic that I could see hovering over my nose and mouth. _Where am I?!_ This time keeping the wonder to myself. I managed to find the strength to move my head around, despite the pain aching at the corner of my head. I began to grip the blanket closest to my fingertips when I felt the wave of uneasiness and panic come over my chest, arms and legs. I felt numb and falling.

**Spencer**

“Emily? Emily?!”, screamed Mrs. Fields when we entered the room. Emily was crying now, and shook weakly on her hospital bed. _What the hell happened?_ I thought to myself. I was gone for a few minutes-

I watched Aria cover both the palms of her hand onto her mouth. I was standing in between the door frames when the nurse pushed through and told everybody to leave. Doctors began rushing in, trying to sedate Emily from her frantic state. Huddled outside her room, we were only able to see the brief scene of Emily’s sedation through the glass window. Mrs. Fields was crying, resting her face onto Mr. Fields’ chest, and walked towards the waiting room once again. It was just Hanna, Aria and I now, watching Emily struggle with her inner demons through the glass window.

“What happened to you, Em?” Hanna softly asked for us to hear. But nobody answered, and we all wanted to know why.


	4. Breathe Me

**Emily**

_Stop!!! Please, don’t! Don’t-don’t…don’t!!! But he wouldn’t stop, he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t let me go. His grip was tightening around my arms and flaming pain drove up my thighs. His chest pounded heavily on mines and I gasped for air to stay alive. He collapsed on me right before I thought it would never end, and I could hear his heart thump profusely on top of my breasts._

“Emily! Wake up honey! Wake up.” I felt my entire body shake gently when I flung my eyes open. I couldn’t sit up from the stab wound on my left side, so she gently leaned in and enveloped me in her arms. I was crying hysterically and screaming for air as my lungs were about to give out. _The dreams kept coming and coming, it won’t stop. He won’t stop._

“Honey, Em- breathe. Breathe in, and out. You can do it. In and out.” Mom carefully pulled me up and began rubbing my back. She placed her left palm onto my back, carefully timing in and out the circulation of air in my lungs. “You can do it…”

“I- _ha_ -c-can- _hau-_ c-can’t”, “Yes you can, come on Em, shh…” But I couldn’t, even though she was pleading for me to breathe through the tedious paces that my lungs felt. I kept gasping for air.

“Yes you can, honey. Breathe… I know you can.” My fingers gripped the fabric of the back of her shirt, my forehead leaning onto her shoulder. Short breathes began to wheeze out of my mouth and I could feel the gravity of my chest stumping me.

“M--om…hau-“, my strained wrist began to ache as I gripped tighter onto her shirt.

“Okay-oh, okay. I’ll stop it…here.” I felt the linings of my mouth and nose being covered by a plastic mask. The clear tube displayed the white fumes racing through the opening. As the ventilator calmed my lungs and my mind, I felt my body being gently laid down as my mind drifted off to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

The girls all sat in their usual round table during lunch. It was a beautiful day out, but they were oblivious to their surroundings. It was the fifth time Spencer looked at her watch, and she wasn’t alone. Hanna, Spencer and Aria felt the day couldn’t have dragged itself any longer. They all wished it was 3 o’ clock, where they can hastily leave school and head to Emily’s house right after.

“I wonder what Emily is doing now.” Aria thought out loud.

“Probably watching reruns of The OC.” Hanna said while smiling. The girls all laughed; although half-heartedly. They all knew that wasn’t the case since the attack. Emily hadn’t been herself since then, she barely ate, spoke or smiled; and the night terrors weren’t getting any better either. Emily’s mom had to spend nights by her bedside when she was in the hospital since she couldn’t bear to leave Emily alone. It was a silver lining when the doctors finally let Emily home, but since she was still hooked up in all sorts of machines, they had to replace her regular bed with the hospital one. A nurse was dispatched to care for her during the mornings every other day, while Emily’s mom was given training for any drastic changes for Emily during the other days and nights.

**Aria**

“I thought she hated The OC?” Spencer asked plainly as she chewed on a carrot, “Yeah, I thought so too”, I seconded the fact; “Hmmm, possibly, but we did spend an entire night watching the seasons.” Hanna replied, while twirling her fingers around her blonde hair. “I always thought Adam Brody was cute”.

Even with all the layers of make-up and concealer, I can still see the enormous worry that has been plastering itself on Hanna’s face over the past week. She tried to hide it from the simple jokes she would make, knowing that we would begin worrying about her.

_RIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

“Ugh, finally!” Hanna excitedly said, as she grabbed her belongings and rushed out of the cafeteria room. The two girls followed, side by side, still eyeing the clocks and Hanna in the hallway.

***

**Pam**

“She had another one Wayne”, I began telling my husband over the wireless phone.

“It’ll pass hon. Just give it time, these things take time.”

“I-I don’t know. I don’t know if she can take anymore-“

“Shh, she will. Our Em is a tough one, she’ll get through this.”

“Her attacks are getting worst; today we had to use the ventilator again.”

“I see. What did the doctors say?”

“Well, she begins her therapy sessions in two weeks. With that, and the medication, they said we should expect even a little bit of progress with her physical health. But-“

“Listen, It’s just going to take some time Pam. Now-“

_Knock Knock Knock_

“Okay, I have to go. The girls are here for Emily, I’ll talk to you later. I love you.” I said hastily as I steadily walked towards the door.

“Okay. Bye. Love you too.” I turned the wireless phone call off cutting what Wayne had anything else to say. At the door, I carefully turned the knob towards the left.

“Hi Mrs. F!”, Hanna said brightly with Aria and Spencer behind.

“Hi girls. Come in, come in.” I led them inside the house and ushered them towards the stairs leading to Emily’s room.

“She’s right upstairs, and um, inside voices. Keep your voice soft; she’s very sensitive at everything right now. Let me know if Emily or you guys need anything.” Just before I could walk towards the kitchen room, I felt a hand slightly pull me back.

“Sorry Mrs. Fields, but, is she-, is Emily-? I stared at Aria as she nervously said those words. The girl’s eyes displayed anticipation and worry, “She’ll be fine. Her ribs are healing and the cut is looking better too. She can walk, but barely. The brace on her leg won’t be taken off until another two weeks, and the doctor recommended light walks, but a lot of rest still.”

“Has she talked to you…Mrs. Fields?”, I hear Spencer’s voice surprisingly crack, voiding the confidence that used to radiate from her.

I looked down to my shoes, I can’t look at these girls anymore, especially being in this conversation. “No. She hasn’t.” I sighed and stared at the girls’ worried faces, “but, maybe she’ll talk to you girls. She, she needs to.” With that, I placed my hand over Aria’s shoulder and turned and walked away.


End file.
